I Love the 80's

[o.pwuaioc]

I miss the 80s so bad. I lived in the country so it was all riding my bike for miles, 4-wheelin', playing hide and seek with my 3 dogs, staying inside on a hot day during the drought of '88 to play Metroid, and of course the music. That music! Every time I turn on VH1 Classic (which is everyday) my main program is the one that shows nothing but 80s music vids. I nearly tear up during every video for the reasons stated above.

For me heaven will be the 80s and 90s running continuously in a loop. ....with quick jumps to the late 60s to hit some concerts.

No 70s? No Floyd, Zeppelin, Bowie, Queen? And you'll offend poor Fibbaflabber if you don't like disco, too!

[Mathius]

I miss the 80s so bad. I lived in the country so it was all riding my bike for miles, 4-wheelin', playing hide and seek with my 3 dogs, staying inside on a hot day during the drought of '88 to play Metroid, and of course the music. That music! Every time I turn on VH1 Classic (which is everyday) my main program is the one that shows nothing but 80s music vids. I nearly tear up during every video for the reasons stated above.

For me heaven will be the 80s and 90s running continuously in a loop. ....with quick jumps to the late 60s to hit some concerts.

No 70s? No Floyd, Zeppelin, Bowie, Queen? And you'll offend poor Fibbaflabber if you don't like disco, too!

Yeah I guess you're right. I couldn't bear to be without Floyd and Zeppelin.

[RyuHayabusa]

80s music rocks. Even when it's bad, and it often is, it's still good. There's an unseriousness about it that makes it better than bad music of the 90s or 00s (or today). Listening to Def Leppard's Pyromania now. Such a good, good album.

You need to get out more. Most of my favorite records are from the 80s too, but great stuff is being released every single week. And Def fucking Leppard? That shit is the opposite of timeless. The production is dated, the lyrics completely vapid and corny, and the musicianship is about 8th grade level most of the time.

Should have said Number of the Beast, Disintegration, Power Corruption and Lies, Thriller, Keeper of the Seven Keys, Actually, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, 1987 - What the Fuck Is Going On?, In 3D, Violator,  Mummer, Purple Rain, Back to Basics, The Queen is Dead, Closer, Licensed to Ill, ...and Justice for All, Operation Mindcrime, etc etc etc. Def Leppard was easily one of the worst bands of the 80s, better only than the ten thousand clone bands that came after them.

Sorry but I have to take issue with this. Def Leppard's first 2 albums, On Through The Night and High and Dry are classics that I still listen to today. There's a raw quality to those albums that is lost in their later albums, especially Hysteria which was way too over-produced. I fucking love Rock Brigade and Overture from their first album, the former a straight ahead kickass rock song and latter being a 7 minute plus epic. Don't get me wrong, I love Queensryche, Maiden, early Metallica, etc. My taste is very diverse when it comes to rock and metal. I just had to speak up for Def Leppard because of my love for their first 2 albums.

[NightWolve]

Yeah, Hysteria, their greatest one.

Photography and Rock of Ages alone I think put Pyromania above Hysteria, and then the rest just puts it into a new league. Violator is actually 1990, though I guess from a pedant's point of view, the "1980s" technically is from 1981-1990.

Def Leppard's first 2 albums, On Through The Night and High and Dry are classics that I still listen to today.

Huh, never heard of 'em. ;) I'll keep it in mind some time though and maybe look 'em up.

[RyuHayabusa]

Def Leppard's first 2 albums, On Through The Night and High and Dry are classics that I still listen to today.

Huh, never heard of 'em. ;) I'll keep it in mind some time though and maybe look 'em up.

Rock Brigade · Def Leppard

[GreatBlue Swirlof99]

I hate being born 2 decades too late  I personally like 80's music (it's better than the stuff we had horrible early '00s music) missed all the good classics and the world was better then than now !

[SignOfZeta]

Violator.

Hell yes.

Obviously, I'll go ahead and add Dare! to the list of Zeta's "Excellent Albums"

*ducks*

I don't care. I love that album.

Plus, it's imperfections are part of its charm.

Don't hate the Human League because you heard one song played too often on the radio.

Great band. Great albums. Many flaws. Charming flaws.

Except for that one shite album that even I can't stomach—Crash.

God awful shite. I loathe Crash.

I love Human League, but Dare? That's like saying Peter Gabriel's best album was So.

[technozombie]

Violator.

Hell yes.

Obviously, I'll go ahead and add Dare! to the list of Zeta's "Excellent Albums"

*ducks*

I don't care. I love that album.

Plus, it's imperfections are part of its charm.

Don't hate the Human League because you heard one song played too often on the radio.

Great band. Great albums. Many flaws. Charming flaws.

Except for that one shite album that even I can't stomach—Crash.

God awful shite. I loathe Crash.

I love Human League, but Dare? That's like saying Peter Gabriel's best album was So.

I have Human League: Travelogue that I picked up from a flea market. I really like it even though I haven't got to spend much time with it. I also picked up Thomas Dolby, she blinded we with science is the weakest song on the album. Some songs are very Bowie like.

[SignOfZeta]

Human League gets better the further back you go, preferably before the ladies came on. At the beginning it was closer to Suicide than the sort of catchy but totally forgettable synth pop they are famous for. There are late period Human League songs I love, same with Peter Gabirel, but there is a time when even the greatest bands on Earth just start...kinda sucking...it doesn't mean you can't still love the new crap (I payed $120 to see New Order in 2012) but it's kinda over regardless.

Just to be clear, the only avant-garde electronic act who's work I knew in 1979 was the BBC Radiophonic Workshop because I was five! I'm one of the "older" guys here, but not that old. However, we have the Internet now. It's time to slab your Poison tapes and dive head first into the human music experience in its totality.

You'll never be the same after 32,000 hours of Negativeland!

https://archive.org/details/ote

[Opethian]

its da muhfuggin po-lice muhfuggin copeland

[NightWolve]

The Police - Walking on the Moon

The Police - Next to You

its da muhfuggin po-lice muhfuggin copeland

The Stinger! Great, obvious addition to the thread!!!!

Own The Police "Best of" CD, and I used to enjoy singing along to "Walking on the Moon" with the track blasted in the car, am not ashamed to say.

Speaking of which, looks like a great rendition by a fan on that America's Got Talent show.

Walking on the Moon amazed America's Got Talent!!!

[esteban]

Human League gets better the further back you go, preferably before the ladies came on. At the beginning it was closer to Suicide than the sort of catchy but totally forgettable synth pop they are famous for. There are late period Human League songs I love, same with Peter Gabirel, but there is a time when even the greatest bands on Earth just start...kinda sucking...it doesn't mean you can't still love the new crap (I payed $120 to see New Order in 2012) but it's kinda over regardless.

Just to be clear, the only avant-garde electronic act who's work I knew in 1979 was the BBC Radiophonic Workshop because I was five! I'm one of the "older" guys here, but not that old. However, we have the Internet now. It's time to slab your Poison tapes and dive head first into the human music experience in its totality.

You'll never be the same after 32,000 hours of Negativeland!

https://archive.org/details/ote

I know of Negativeland because they were usually covered in punk fanzines back in the day.

But I love Dare! because that's the pure pop album I had as a kid.

Later I picked up the older albums.

@Travelogue:  I leaned what "Krugerrands" and "Tarmac" was from that album. Thank god for printed lyrics.

Someone told me about Heaven 17 in college. I had no idea about the connection to early Human League. Ha!

For Peter Gabriel, I loved Shock the Monkey, so you can see where this is going. That album (I forget the name) had Rhythm of the Heat on it. Loved that LP. 

Only later did I pick up older albums (the "melty face" album and some other one....can't remember the cover).

Such greatness...but guess what?

I still loved that whole damn "Shock the Monkey" album.

BOTTOM LINE: radio helped me find albums.

[o.pwuaioc]

Alphaville's Forever Young > Human League's Dare.

[OldMan]

The Police?

Sally/Be My Girl, from the first album.Of course, you never hear Sally on the radio....
Of course, I liked the J Giels band, too...

( You're really old if you know this line: "That Bowling Ball! It's my wife!" )

[CGQuarterly]

Way better than "I Ran".

[Mathius]

The Police?

Sally/Be My Girl, from the first album.Of course, you never hear Sally on the radio....
Of course, I liked the J Giels band, too...

( You're really old if you know this line: "That Bowling Ball! It's my wife!" )

Stewart Copeland is in my top 5 drummers of all time along with Keith Moon, Ginger Baker, and Mitch Mitchell. They had such a great sound The Police did.

[NightWolve]

Way better than "I Ran".

Eeehhh, gonna have to say no to that, still liking "I Ran" much better. ;)

[o.pwuaioc]

Way better than "I Ran".

Eeehhh, gonna have to say no to that, still liking "I Ran" much better. ;)

I ran is nothing without the music video, though:

[esteban]

Alphaville's Forever Young > Human League's Dare.

That album by Alphaville is fantastic. Every song (save for one?) could have been a single.

However, the first two A-ha albums are even stronger. EVERY FRIGGIN' SONG IS FANTASTIC. Utterly heavenly. I love those first two A-ha albums.

But I could also say the same of OVERKILL or DAG NASTY or TEARS FOR FEARS—first two albums for each of these bands were amazing, then, downhill.

 There's something wonderful about Dare! that just didn't happen on any other album. I think it's the production, synths used, the lyrics, the arrangements....its just a unique product.

I love Alphaville Forever Young, though, so I won't begrudge anyone who places it over Dare!.

Personally, I think Human League went way downhill after Dare!, but I digress. Hysteria is flawed, step backwards from Dare!, but I still like it. Then...ouch.

Now, the first two Dag Nasty albums are really great, even if the vocals are strained/atonal/something askew. It doesn't matter.

[Mathius]

Sounds like I need to go shopping for some A-ha Cds

[o.pwuaioc]

That album by Alphaville is fantastic. Every song (save for one?) could have been a single.

However, the first two A-ha albums are even stronger. EVERY FRIGGIN' SONG IS FANTASTIC. Utterly heavenly. I love those first two A-ha albums.

But I could also say the same of OVERKILL or DAG NASTY or TEARS FOR FEARS—first two albums for each of these bands were amazing, then, downhill.

 There's something wonderful about Dare! that just didn't happen on any other album. I think it's the production, synths used, the lyrics, the arrangements....its just a unique product.

I love Alphaville Forever Young, though, so I won't begrudge anyone who places it over Dare!.

Personally, I think Human League went way downhill after Dare!, but I digress. Hysteria is flawed, step backwards from Dare!, but I still like it. Then...ouch.

Now, the first two Dag Nasty albums are really great, even if the vocals are strained/atonal/something askew. It doesn't matter.

I think I like Hunting High and Low better than Dare, but I haven't formed an opinion on Scoundrel Days in comparison to the three aforementioned albums. Perhaps I should.

Alphaville also went downhill. It's not a bad album, but Afternoons in Utopia doesn't come close to the original.

[wildfruit]

Danger mouse
Count duckula
Trap door. Don't you open that trap door cos there's something down there.
A surprise hurricane.
Living in a shitty small house.
Such memories.

[esteban]

Danger mouse
Count duckula
Trap door. Don't you open that trap door cos there's something down there.
A surprise hurricane.
Living in a shitty small house.
Such memories.

I love how you reminisced. Scary even—trapdoor?!

[esteban]

POLICE: I love La Polizie. Even that song PEANUTS! is awesome. Such a great band. I learned who Nabakov was from that big hit song. I still remember taking songs off the radio and trying to figure out the lyrics. King of Pain, specifically. This was before I bought the records.


SCOUNDREL DAYS: A great album. "We're looking for the Whales" is a personal fave of mine. I always skipped "Cry Wolf" because that song was corny as hell, even when I was 10-11 years old. Still, not the worst song. Just not nearly as great as the rest of the album.

AFTERNOONS IN UTOPIA: agreed, not nearly as strong. Damn.

FLOCK OF SEAGULLS: they actually have a bunch of really great songs. Seriously. Even some b-sides are really great. I still have a bunch of singles....interesting b-sides.

[wildfruit]

Danger mouse
Count duckula
Trap door. Don't you open that trap door cos there's something down there.
A surprise hurricane.
Living in a shitty small house.
Such memories.

I love how you reminisced. Scary even—trapdoor?!

[esteban]

Danger mouse
Count duckula
Trap door. Don't you open that trap door cos there's something down there.
A surprise hurricane.
Living in a shitty small house.
Such memories.

I love how you reminisced. Scary even—trapdoor?!

Wow. Never knew about that.

That was catchier than it should have been. Especially since I am 8x older than the target audience.

Why am I still singing the song?

[NightWolve]

POLICE: I love La Polizie. Even that song PEANUTS! is awesome. Such a great band. I learned who Nabakov was from that big hit song.

Oh, so that's where "Lolita" came from and why it means what it means... The 80's mix of "Don't Stand So Close to Me" is the better version, but yeah, I do remember that line of "Just like the old man in That famous book by Nabakov" in it. When you take that song and add in "Every breath you take, Every move you make, Every bond you break, Every step you take, I'll be watching you", eeehhh, one might start to one wonder there about the ole Stinger...

[Nazi NecroPhile]

Any of you ever read Nabokov's Lolita?  It's fucked up.

[NightWolve]

Any of you ever read Nabokov's Lolita? It's fucked up.

Nope, I didn't know it was a book till este mentioned the Nabakov line and I looked up the name. I learned "Lolita" from the cultural use it gained for pedo-fiends.

[SignOfZeta]

A-Ha is great. Scoundrel Days is my favorite but I have stuff from them as recent as 2009 and I love that too. I think he can still hit the high note on Take On Me, which is impressive. I could barely hit it when I was 20, now I'm two or three semitones below.

I vaguely remember the main dude collaborating with someone else I like on something recently, I can't remember what though.

[Mathius]

A-Ha is great. Scoundrel Days is my favorite but I have stuff from them as recent as 2009 and I love that too. I think he can still hit the high note on Take On Me, which is impressive. I could barely hit it when I was 20, now I'm two or three semitones below.

I vaguely remember the main dude collaborating with someone else I like on something recently, I can't remember what though.

Next time we meet up, Zeta, I'm gonna wanna hear your take of Take on Me. 

[TurboXray]

Lived it. Watched it. Don't need to do it again.

Hahaha. I can relate this. Outside of retro games, I have no love for the 80's. I lived though it - it's wasn't that great. Same with the 90's. Probably even more so with the 90's. I actually hate the 90's. I miss neither.

[OldMan]

I have no love for the 80's.

I wish I could -remember- the 80's.
They say pot affects your long-term memory

Probably even more so with the 90's

The 90's were ok. Spend the decade raising my niece and nephew. Days just blur together when you are doing things like that. Except for when I met my wife. That one I remember well.

[TR0N]

It wouldn't been entertaining in the 80's without Oingo Boingo 

[Digi.k]

Danger mouse
Count duckula
Trap door. Don't you open that trap door cos there's something down there.
A surprise hurricane.
Living in a shitty small house.
Such memories.

lots of brit childrens show there. Did you ever watch Thunderpants ?

[wildfruit]

Danger mouse
Count duckula
Trap door. Don't you open that trap door cos there's something down there.
A surprise hurricane.
Living in a shitty small house.
Such memories.

lots of brit childrens show there. Did you ever watch Thunderpants ?

Never heard of that one.
Oo remembered some more.
Dogtanian
Ulysses 31
Mysterious cities of gold
Morph

[esteban]

^ Bum-Ra. Awesome.

I don't think they could have packed any more puns in that Thunderpants video.

[esteban]

Any of you ever read Nabokov's Lolita?  It's fucked up.

I read bits of it (first half), to compare it to the film (Kubrick).

I realized that there were certainly some differences, but I still haven't sat down and read it properly. This was 10 years ago.

I did the same thing with King's The Shining vs Kubrick's film, but I still need to properly read the novel. This was 20 years ago.

I am happy to report that I read King's Carrie completely, after watching the original film, when I was a little kid. This was 30 years ago.

Why can't I accomplish as an adult what I did as a kid?

Even though I was in 6 grade, Carrie scared me.

[o.pwuaioc]

Technically came out in the 80s!

[Opethian]

Technically came out in the 80s!

maybe but you didn't see it in record stores until Broken came out anyways.

[SignOfZeta]

That's not true. All the indoor kids I knew were on that bandwagon by the time the video for Head Like a Hole went into heavy rotation. These were kids that were into The Smiths, The Cure, New Order, Depeche Mode, Lene Lovich, Einstürzende Neubauten, etc. I suppose it was later when the "rock people" got into it, but PHM was a pretty big hit, it seemed that way to me anyway.

I'm not a NIN fan by any means, but he produced The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust and that thing is still blowing my head apart years after release. I kinda couldn't even handle it at first it's so goddamned hard, but I eventually came to love it after seeing one of the shows in the support tour. I think Saul Williams must sweat acid or something because he shows are borderline supernatural in their intensity.

[SignOfZeta]

Oh, btw, someone please say something about They Might Be Giants.

[esteban]

Oh, btw, someone please say something about They Might Be Giants.

My favorite stuff is early on.

Then they got less and less magical.

I loved the wacky humor stuff when I was a kid...but, now I try to find the "perfect song" and some of that humor/silliness doesn't survive 10+ loops of the same song (I have grown to hate Particle Man, Cow Town, Lie Still, Little Bottle, etc.) for example, the hate started a long, long ago).

Quick list of TMBG songs I can listen to 10+ times, on a loop:

Nightgown of the Sullen Moon
Hey, Mr. DJ, I Thought You Said We Had a Deal
I'll Sink Manhattan

She's an Angel, Rhythm Section Want Ad, Everything Right is Wrong Again, Put Your Hand Inside the Puppet Head, Noat of Car, Absolutely Bill's Mood

They'll Need A Crane, Ana Ng, Where Your Eyes Don't Go

Birdhouse in Your Soul (this might be 1990)

(Obviously, there are more, but see how I chose the "commercial pop formula" songs and lost interest in some of the sillier stuff)

I think They'll Need a Crane is one of the best songs, ever.

[Opethian]

TMBG have pretty legendary lyrics.  I did get sick of Particle Man and The Guitar but the following still holds up for me:

Purple Toupee
They'll need a crane
Ana Ng
Birdhouse
Fingertips (live)
I Palindrome I
Statue got me High
(Put Your Hands Inside) The Puppet Head
I should be allowed to think
End of the Tour


but as este sez ...most of these were early 90s.

[esteban]

After not really listening to TMBG for 20+ years, I can't believe how much I still like "Put Your Hand Inside the Puppet Head."

[wildfruit]

[roflmao]

Oh, btw, someone please say something about They Might Be Giants.

According to last.fm TMBG is my #2 artist of all time. Tom Waits is #1. ;)

[SignOfZeta]

By any metric TMBG has to be considered one of the all time greatest American rock bands. I never would have said that after I first saw the video for Ana Ng but 30 years later they are as good as they ever were, their tours are a blast and hugely popular, great new records still come of out them, including kids records now, and they are basically cool guys in general.

That bass clarinet is the smoothest thing on the Earth, that too.

[roflmao]

By any metric TMBG has to be considered one of the all time greatest American rock bands. I never would have said that after I first saw the video for Ana Ng but 30 years later they are as good as they ever were, their tours are a blast and hugely popular, great new records still come of out them, including kids records now, and they are basically cool guys in general.

That bass clarinet is the smoothest thing on the Earth, that too.

Agreed.

[esteban]

By any metric TMBG has to be considered one of the all time greatest American rock bands. I never would have said that after I first saw the video for Ana Ng but 30 years later they are as good as they ever were, their tours are a blast and hugely popular, great new records still come of out them, including kids records now, and they are basically cool guys in general.

That bass clarinet is the smoothest thing on the Earth, that too.

I haven't been into TMBG for the last 20+ years... I am willing to give this material a second chance, but I can tell you that it will not make a significant change in my overall "judgement" of their output.

That said, there is enough greatness in the first bunch of releases to still guarantee a spot on "Bands to Respect"...